Many residential and commercial premises include electric meter systems to allow utility companies to monitor the consumption of electricity within the premises. An electric meter may include a metering component to measure the consumption and a radio component to communicate the measurements to the utility company for billing and other purposes. The meter is electrically connected to a socket, which is usually located in a utility box positioned on an outside wall of the premises. The meter may include blades, which are received in the socket and held in place by a tension force applied to the blades by the socket.
During installation of a new meter, an old meter is removed from the meter socket and replaced with a new meter. As the old meter is replaced with the new meter, the meter socket may still be conducting electricity, or “hot”, from utility power lines. Accordingly, the installation process is performed quickly and forcefully. For example, the old meter may be knocked or pulled out of the meter socket and blades of the new meter may be immediately forced into the meter socket to reestablish the electrical connection. In some instances, the installation of the new meter may create a phenomenon known as “arcing” where an electrical arc is formed in a gap between the meter blade and the meter socket as the meter is installed. Arcing may also occur randomly, subsequent to the installation period. For example, if the tension force of the socket is lessened, then gaps may occur between the blades and the socket. The gaps provide an environment conducive to arcing. The presence of arcing in an electric metering system may cause high heat, and in some instances, fire that may cause significant damage to the components of the electric meter systems and, potentially, the premises to which the electric meter system is connected. In addition, arcing in an electric metering system may injure humans, such as workers assisting with a meter replacement. Therefore, it is desirable to detect arcing conditions before any damage or endangerment occurs.